Burton wins shortened Las Vegas race
Jeff Burton won a technically-finished, rain shortened NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las Vegas.
Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Bill Elliott and Bobby Labonte made-up the top-five.
The race was halted twice for rain - with no hope of a break - on the saturated Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
As 42 of 43 starting cars sat parked and covered in turn one, NASCAR gave up an hour and a half later and declared the CarsDirect.com 400 a finished race.
A total of 134 had been completed, marking an "official" race.
Burton won the September Darlington race, and his second "No Bull 5" bonus at Darlington Raceway, thanks to a rain interruption.
Four races are designated each year as No Bull events where the top five finishers (this time, from Daytona) are eligible for the bonus at the next race.
Dale Jarrett, finishing 7th today, picked up the bonus from the pole at Daytona.
Few drivers or fans will admit satisfaction at the interruption after seeing what had the makings of a great race; fan-favourite veterans ran well and others hoped to improve ill-handling cars as time permitted.
It didn't, and by lap 110 just half the starters were on the lead lap when only weather caused cautions to slow a torrid pace set by Earnhardt Jr, Martin and Burton.
The red flag first waved on lap 41 after the field ran 20 laps under yellow because of rain.
The 20-minute break, so early in the event, wasn't much of a boon to crews who frantically tried to adjust for cooler, wet conditions than they practiced.
Earnhardt Jr had the lead during the first pause. He would finish 10th.
Among those who missed the set-up entirely was Jeff Gordon.
He pitted repeatedly prior to the red and was a lap down in 28th when the red showed again on lap 148.
"The car got really loose early on and I couldn't get it back." said the three-time champ early in the second intermission.
"We're actually pretty good now. But I hate that we're a lap down; I don't know if I want to go out there again now."
"Hot or Not" was obvious from the drop of the green flag. Rookie Earnhardt Jr let pole-sitter Ricky Rudd lead lap one, then muscled by, giving Martin the lead for five laps before hanging in the top ten the rest of the race.
His father, starting 33rd, motored into the top ten before the first green flag pit stops (laps 75-90) and laid claim to best Chevrolet, finishing 8th.
"We're not losing as much ground on long runs," said Junior in an important understatement.
Earnhardt-piloted cars traditionally look like rockets on fresh rubber after a pit stop, and predictably drop off dramatically one-third through the run.
Such was not the case at Rockingham a week ago and the first half of this race.
"The Pennzoil and Budweiser (Dale Earnhardt, Inc) cars are helping Richard Childress, me and Mike Skinner learn about and improve the Monte Carlo's," said Earnhardt Snr.
Joining Gordon along the wailing wall was rookie Scott Pruett.
He started second, never led a lap and fell to the back of the field with an ill-handling car.
Pos |
Driver |
Car |
Laps |
1 |
J Burton |
Ford |
148 |
2 |
T Stewart |
Pontiac |
148 |
3 |
M Martin |
Ford |
148 |
4 |
B Elliott |
Ford |
148 |
5 |
B Labonte |
Pontiac |
148 |
6 |
J Benson |
Pontiac |
148 |
7 |
D Jarrett |
Ford |
148 |
8 |
D Earnhardt |
Chevrolet |
148 |
9 |
J Nemechek |
Chevrolet |
148 |
10 |
D Earnhardt Jr |
Chevrolet |
148 |
11 |
K LePage |
Ford |
148 |
12 |
R Rudd |
Ford |
148 |
13 |
R Gordon |
Ford |
148 |
14 |
M Kenseth |
Ford |
148 |
15 |
R Wallace |
Ford |
148 |
16 |
K Schrader |
Pontiac |
148 |
17 |
J Mayfield |
Ford |
148 |
18 |
S Marlin |
Chevrolet |
148 |
19 |
C Little |
Ford |
148 |
20 |
J Nadeau |
Chevrolet |
147 |
21 |
R Pressley |
Ford |
147 |
22 |
D Blaney |
Pontiac |
147 |
23 |
W Burton |
Pontiac |
147 |
24 |
K Irwin |
Chevrolet |
147 |
25 |
J Andretti |
Pontiac |
147 |
26 |
T Musgrave |
Chevrolet |
147 |
27 |
M Skinner |
Chevrolet |
147 |
28 |
J Gordon |
Chevrolet |
147 |
29 |
K Petty |
Pontiac |
147 |
30 |
J Spencer |
Ford |
147 |
31 |
T Labonte |
Chevrolet |
147 |
32 |
S Compton |
Ford |
147 |
33 |
M Waltrip |
Chevrolet |
147 |
34 |
B Hamilton |
Chevrolet |
146 |
35 |
W Dallenbach |
Ford |
146 |
36 |
J Fuller |
Pontiac |
146 |
37 |
D Cope |
Ford |
146 |
38 |
D Waltrip |
Ford |
146 |
39 |
K Wallace |
Chevrolet |
146 |
40 |
R Craven |
Chevrolet |
146 |
41 |
E Sadler |
Ford |
145 |
42 |
S Pruett |
Ford |
143 |
43 |
S Park |
Chevrolet |
92 |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments